Friday, August 14, 2015

How this all started, Part 3: KPop? Wait...You like this?

I believe that the Korean language is beautiful... I think it can sound rhythmic, smooth and romantic; and at other times choppy, hard and cool. For you to really understand how I have begun to fall in love with a language you have to know more about my new deep burning love for its music.

Introducing... KPop:

Now I do not claim to be an expert on any level... I can really only tell you, like with most of this, about my own experience and how this music touches me. Like most of us, US fans... I found KPop while looking up actors names from my first drama. I realized that two of the actors from You are Beautiful, were in actual bands in real life.

Jung Yong Hwa from the band CNBlue:

And Lee Hong Ki from the band ftisland:

I decided to try the music... Never expecting to really like it. I had tried french music before and didn't like it that much... and I had tried a few other languages and their music but I would quickly get bored not knowing what they were saying... But when I listened to what was available on Pandora... I found that I actually really liked the sound. I will admit that in the beginning it might have been more about the oddity than the music itself at least until one fateful night... When I looked up the music videos. I thought that a song on Pandora sounded kind of cool... it was by the group VIXX and the song was called Hyde... Mind you this was my first exposure to what Kpop can look like.

I was so creeped out by the video I wondered if I should give up on Kpop all together...but for whatever reason I looked up one more video, To the Light by FTisland...

And that my friends is when I fell in love with Korean music.

This video, song and band would lead me on to finding out that I loved Korean Music... That I loved the sound of the Korean language... And through it I would find other groups that I loved, such as, CNBlue, Shinee, EXO, Tablo and so on and so forth. Ironically, the song that started all this... "To the Light" is sung in Japanese.

So... Maybe I am learning the wrong language? Naw....

I guess, now you might be wondering why I even like to listen to this music that I can't understand... That can creep me out...given the right music video and that might sometimes be in Japanese, even when the band is Korean.
Well... I think that this meme sums it all up:

I just like it.. I love the music...the amazing voices of the singers, the awesome rappers... And it really helps that they throw in a lot of English here and there so you can figure out what the theme of a lot of the songs are... On top of all of that Kpop has a culture all of its own... filled with crazy costumes, even crazier stunts and adorable performers that just make you smile and ask... Why?

As I delve more deeply into the music I learn more words, more culture and a deeper respect for the people of Korea... Music is something that transcends culture, language, time and space. Music can touch your heart without you even knowing why. When I heard the FTisland song that night... I didn't know what it was about other than it was something to do with reaching the light... but that song gave me hope and it inspired me to find out more. I can now usually tell if one of the songs is in Japanese over Korean, and I like the Korean versions better, but To the Light will always have a special place in my heart.

So there you have it... How this all started... is hopefully just the beginning.